


Under Bajoran Skies and Cardassian Hands

by captainraz



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Blood and Violence, Gen, Guerrilla Warfare, In Canon Racial Slurs, Life Under Occupation, Non-explicit sexual assault, Religious Themes, Starvation, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 03:37:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20269378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainraz/pseuds/captainraz
Summary: Snapshots and vignettes of life under Cardassian occupation. How the war was won.





	Under Bajoran Skies and Cardassian Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from this [8tracks playlist](https://8tracks.com/kimaracretak/hardly-saw-the-crossroads#smart_id#play) by kimaracretak 
> 
> I started this project with a list of 100 words intending to write a drabble for all of them. Didn't quite finish the list, but here are the drabbles I finished.

**Introduction**

Kira Nerys wasn't terribly impressed by the scraggly teenager than Lorit had just introduced her to. Shakaar was only a few years older than her, gangly and scruffy with sad eyes. He was the leader of the resistance cell she hoped to join though, which meant she needed to make a good impression.

She squared her shoulders as Shakaar looked her up and down.

"A bit small," he said quietly. "Make yourself useful cleaning weapons and stuff, maybe we’ll take you on a mission. Start with this.” He threw her a phaser rifle.

Kira grinned.

“So I’m in?”

“You’re in.”

**Love**

Her first, and best love was always Bajor. Even before she loved the Prophets Nerys loved the land that birthed her. Before she was really aware of herself she was aware of her people’s suffering at the hands of people who were not of Bajor. Before she knew how to spell her own name she knew she would do everything she could to free her beloved home of her oppressors. Her love for Bajor kept her going, long after her family were all gone. When she had nothing else to fight for, her love for her home kept her strong.

**Light**

The light hurt her eyes after two weeks in the hole. Nothing but pitch black and her own thoughts for fourteen days.

And still she hadn't cracked.

It had been stupid to get caught stealing food, but at least the Cardies who'd arrested her hadn't managed to connect her to the resistance. They'd thrown her in the hole for disrespecting a supervisor.

She was less belligerent after two weeks of darkness, with no excercise and only basic nutrition. It was dingy in her cell though still bright enough to give her a headache. At least she was alive.

For now.

**Dark**

Darkness is a blessing for the Resistance. It gives them cover, lets them do their destructive business with less chance of getting caught. But it is a double edged sword, since it hides their Cardassian targets just as easily.

Tonight Bajor’s moons are hidden behind cloud, giving the Shakaar near perfect darkness to set up their ambush. Kira is hunkered down next to Mobara, his elbows digging into her ribs. She grips her phaser rifle tight, and waits in the darkness.

The Cardassians don’t see the attack coming, and are helpless against it. Afterwards the rebels escape into the night.

**Seeking Solace**

Another day meant another mission, and another comrade lost. Nesh was about the same age as Nerys, and had only been with the Shakaar a few weeks. Kira could still hear the sickening crunch as the Cardassian dalin snapped her neck.

It was at times like this that members of the underground relied on each other the most. They'd band together in small groups to comfort each other in their grief, raise a glass in their honour.

Kira preferred physical comfort, burying her head into Lupaza's shoulder as she wept. Tomorrow would be all business, but today they would mourn.

**Break Away**

It was sad to say goodbye to anyone who had fought alongside them, but in this case it had to be done. The Shakaar cell had grown too big; it was a liability to itself. So some of the members were splitting off to form their own cell.

"I'm gonna miss you," said Kira, hugging Aynat tightly.

"I'll miss you too, little one," said Aynat affectionately. "Take care."

"Go kill some Spoonheads for us," said Furel .

"We'll make you proud. After all, we're still Shakaar in our hearts."

The camp was quieter than usual that evening. They missed their friends.

**Heaven**

Its a tradition in the underground, to say a prayer to the Prophets before every mission. Even those fighters who aren’t particularly religious do it, and its become something of a good luck ritual for the Shakaar.

The prayers are always the same. Wishes for a successful mission and for them all to make it back in one piece. And if they don’t make it back they pray that the Prophets will guide them to the Celestial Temple with open arms. That’s all they wish for because in the arms of the Prophets the Cardassians can’t hurt them any more.

**Innocence**

Innocence is a precious commodity on Bajor these days. Most Bajoran children lose theirs at a young age, of they ever truly had it at all. Generations of abused children who had to grow up too fast.

Kira has lost her innocence many times over and each time she's lost some vital part of herself.

She knew she lost her innocence for sure the night she was raped by a Cardassian guard. She could have killed him, easily, but his distraction let her cellmates get away. So she bit her lip and endured, and sacrificed her innocence for her friends.

**Drive**

Lupaza jumped into the skimmer and yelled "Drive!"

Kira didn't need telling twice; she put her foot down and sped off.

"What happened?" she yelled over the roaring of an engine pushed too far.

"They had more guards than our sources indicated. I barely got out of there alive."

Kira grimaced. Running escape route on a bomb planting mission was never fun, but it was better than being the planter.

"You made it back," said Kira reassuringly. "And I'll run them ragged across the countryside. They'll never find the camp, don't worry."

Lu grinned. "That's why I like you driving."

**Breathe Again**

They were on a mission when it happened, travelling through the woods to meet another cell when they got unlucky and stumbled on a Cardassian patrol. They were outnumbered this time and short on supplies. All they could do was dive for cover and pray to the Prophets the Cardassians didn't have tricorders. They kept as still as they could, hardly daring to breathe and willing their hearts to stop pounding quite so loudly.

There were several tense moments when they all thought they were dead for sure, but eventually the patrol passed them by, and they could breathe again.

**Memory**

One of her earliest memories is of her mother. She doesn’t remember much about Meru, she was only three years old when she left them, but she does recall this. It’s not clear, and sometimes Nerys is half convinced she dreamed it, but she remembers her mother singing to her as she fell asleep one night. Her mother smiles, and tucks a strand of hair behind Nerys’ and for just one moment she can forget the Cardassians even exist.

It’s not much but Kira has held on to that one moment for years. It’s all she has of her mother.

**Silence**

The silence was almost deafening in its intensity.

It took Kira several moments to realise what had happened, and why she couldn’t hear anything beyond the strange ringing sensation. The damned Cardassians had started shelling their camp and she’d gotten too close.

She was face down in the dirt where the explosion had left her and she pushed herself up gently. The entire camp was in a disarray, but she wouldn’t be much help like this. She sat up and pressed her hands to her ears, thankful there wasn’t any blood. The deafness would only be temporary. Thank the Prophets.

**Questioning**

The fist collided with Kira’s face hard enough that she felt something break.

“Where is your rebel base located?” asked a harsh, unforgiving voice.

Kira spat blood and curses. The fist came crunching back down.

“What is the frequency for your communications system?”

“Eat shit, spoonie scum.”

This time a knee came rushing up to meet her abdomen. Kira coughed and retched, but there was nothing to come up.

“How many other cells are you in contact with?”

“Hit me all you want,” she said fiercely. “I’ll die before I tell you.”

Her Cardassian tormentor smiled. “That can be arranged.”

**Blood**

There is so much blood on her hands that Kira knows she will never be clean. Much of it is Cardassian, but too many of her fellow Bajorans have died by her hand too. Sometimes she has killed for mercy, ending swiftly a life that had been gurgling away, but mostly she has killed because they were her enemy. It didn’t matter if they were Bajoran by birth; if they were helping the Cardassians they were traitors, and would be dealt with accordingly. The blood will never wash off and the guilt will never die. That’s the price of freedom.

**Gray**

Almost everything about the Cardassians is grey, Kira has found. Their scaly reptilian skin looks odd compared to that of a Bajoran, their grab pallor making them look ill. But its not just Cardassian skin that is depressingly grey, their buildings are too.

Everywhere they go on Bajor the Cardassians build these architectural monstrosities out of grey plasticrete. Their buildings are practical, for sure, but offensive to Bajoran aesthetics. It just makes it all that more satisfying to blow them up. The reds and oranges provide a nice contrast in colour, but even the dust is grey when it settles.

**Fortitude**

Kira has known pain all her life. From the hunger pangs of an empty stomach to the agony of an untreated injury, pain has been her one constant. She had learnt at an early age what a harsh beating felt like, had been on the wrong end of a phaser burn too many times to count and was intimately acquainted with the sexual horrors the Cardassians were capable of inflicting.

And through it all, she has endured.

There is nothing that they can do to her that she cannot endure, and she wears her fortitude like a badge of honour.

**Cat**

Kira crouches low in the bushes, her attention focused on her surroundings. She's on long range reconnaissance, gauging how far into the woods the Spoonheads have come. She's on her own, running on little sleep and less food and she's tense as all hell.

Something rustles off to her left and Kira fires off a shot before she can think. The resultant cry of pain sounds wrong, and when she investigates she finds she's shot a hara cat; a mother nursing her kittens. Her heart breaks, but she's got a job to do.

She says a prayer and moves on.

**Under the Rain**

Most people find Dahkur province miserable in the rain. The grey washes down off the hills and the red dirt turns to bloody rivers beneath your feet. It is wise to stay indoors when the rains come in Dahkur.

Kira likes the rain though. It’s soothing somehow; the quiet of the world and the gentle rhythm of the drops hitting the ground. For someone who has sometimes gone months without bathing, it is cleansing as well. Kira feels as though her very Pagh is being washed clean.

So when it rains, she sits under a tree, praying and getting wet.

**Flowers**

Kira Nerys hated flowers. Growing up in the refugee camps the only time they saw flowers was when they buried an unfortunate worker. She knew that her mother's favourite flowers were Bajoran lilacs, but she hadn't known that until after her death. She'd never seen her mother enjoy them in life.

Flowers were intrinsically linked to death, grief and loss for Kira. So when one of the boys in the Shakaar tried to impress her with wild mountain flowers, she boxed his ears while Furel roared with laughter.

"I told you she'd do that, lad," he said. “Nerys hates flowers."

**Night**

Night time was often when the resistance were at their busiest, using the cover of darkness to hide them and their bloody business. On the nights they weren't running missions they would remain at camp and try to get some rest.

If sleep proved difficult to achieve then they would turn to each other for comfort. Sometimes having a warm body pressed close would be all that was needed, other nights they would have wear each other out with a round of sex or two. There was no shame in the resistance. Life was short and the nights were long.

**Expectations**

When Kira was a child, she’d thought that being a member of the Resistance would be glorious. They were freedom fighters, noble and brave, how could it not be glorious? Now that she’s in the Underground, she knows its mostly waiting. She spends her time freezing her extremities off waiting for ambushes, crawling through unmentionable muck to plant bombs and cleaning blood out of her clothes. The rest of the time they’re holed up in caves without enough food, heat or medical supplies. It is not glorious, being in the resistance, but it is right. She holds on to that.

**Stars**

Kira sometimes looks up at the stars, at the familiar constellations dancing around her home, and she envies them. She thinks that one day she’d like to see them up close, become an explorer. Maybe build a lightship and find the Celestial Temple. Such dreams are childish, she knows. The only way she is going to see the stars up close is if the Cardassians take her away to a mining planet far from home. Such dreams are impractical, so she buries them deep. Years later, orbiting some Gamma Quadrant world on the Defiant, she remembers her dream and smiles.

**Hold My Hand**

You look down and see that your partner is struggling to scale the Cardassian communications tower. You can’t leave her behind and its imperative you get to the top to set the explosives. You’re both too high to jump without killing yourselves, but not yet high enough to use the parachutes you’ve brought with you. The fate of the mission hangs in the balance, and the Shakaar pride themselves on not leaving anyone behind. There’s only one thing you can do, so you climb back down the tower a few metres and reach out to her.

“Here, take my hand.”

**Precious Treasure**

"What on Bajor is that?" asked Shakaar.

Kira scoffed at him; he never had been much for religious history. "This is Jesuu's sculpture of the Bantaca spire at B'Hala. It's a priceless religious artefact."

Shakaar looked sceptical. "It's a rock."

"A very important rock, Edon."

"If it’s a Bantaca spire how come there are no coordinates on it?"

"Because Jesuu didn’t actually know the location of B'Hala, Edon. No one does." Kira was beginning to get impatient.

"So, it’s actually just a piece of rock with an ancient Bajoran sculptor’s name on it?"

Kira snatched it back. "It's still priceless."

**Eyes**

It was the eyes that got you. Sunken and hollow in their skulls, shadowed by the ghosts of things that should never be seen.

Kalla-Nohra was an awful way to die; the toxic gases from the accident dissolved the lungs making it hard to breathe even before the tumours grew and drowned you in your own mucus. Everyone at Gallitep suffered, even the camps liberators coughed ash for days, but the scarred lungs were nothing compared to the scarred minds.

Those poor people had seen the worst of both Cardassian and Bajoran nature. You could see it in their eyes.

**Abandoned**

They peeked over the ridge cautiously.

"You reckon anyone's still in there?" Lupaza asked Furel quietly.

"Nah. Spoonheads have been retreating to the cities for weeks 'cos we've finally got them on the run. This place should be completely abandoned."

"Reckon they left anything useful behind?"

"The Cardassians will have taken anything usable and trashed anything else out of spite," said Kira. "The only thing we'll find in there are traps."

"The walls look intact. Easily defensible," said Lu.

"If we don't get killed by the traps," Kira warned.

"We'll check it out. Careful of the traps," said Furel, grinning.

**Dreams**

Most of the Shakaar have nightmares. It’s inevitable, living the lives they do, seeing the things they see. Kira started with them herself not long after she first joined the resistance, but they got worse after the liberation of Gallitep. The things they saw happening in that camp... they honestly didn’t bear thinking about. So of course she had to relive it again and again every night in her dreams.

It’s nothing compared to the nightmares of those who lived through the brutality of Gallitep of course, but Kira will have to endure those dreams the rest of her life.

**Rated**

It happened occasionally that even the best resistance members were captured. They'd screwed up and now Kira, Shakaar and Lorit were in a cell with some other Bajoran prisoners waiting for processing.

"Line them up," shouted the glinn in charge. "Come on, I haven't got all day, scum"

The prisoners did as they were told. The overseer sauntered down the line giving work assignments. He sent Lorit and Shakaar straight to the mines.

He looked Kira up and down and licked his lips. "Comfort woman."

Kira smiled sweetly. "I don't think so," she said shortly before she broke his nose.

**Dying**

Everyone in the resistance is used to the idea of dying. You can't not be. From the moment you go on your first mission you know its a possibility. But some missions bring it closer to home than others.

Sometimes its a phaser blast that barely misses you, or an explosion that goes off too close for comfort. It doesn’t matter. All of them have offered prayers to the Prophets to protect them in that moment. Death isn't something to be feared in the resistance, but neither is it to be embraced. Because you can’t kill Spoonheads if you’re dead.

**Two Roads**

"I just think you're spending too much time with the Underground, that's all," said Taban, trying to settle his daughter's ire. "What about your education? Your brothers? They need you too!"

"You don't understand, none of that matters as long as the Cardassians are hurting Bajorans. The resistance needs me!"

"You family needs you. Or doesn't that matter to you any more?"

"Of course my family matters to me," she protested.

"Well then, make your choice. Which matters to you more, your family, or the rebellion?"

Nerys packed up her belongings and left that night. The resistance needed her more.

**Childhood**

Childhood was a brief and fragile thing on Occupied Bajor. Kira’s ended when she was thirteen, the day she first joined the resistance. It ended when her brothers died; the first time a Cardassian raised his hand to discipline her. Kira’s childhood was stripped away so early by so many events its a wonder she had one at all. And yet somehow she did. She remembers playing games with her brothers, with other children at the refugee camp. The memories give her strength. She fights so that those who come after will have more of a childhood than she did.

**Stripes**

Furel held her down as Lupaza cleaned her wounds out. Kira hissed and writhed with every touch of alcohol soaked cloth to her back.

“Easy, Nerys, easy,” he murmured.

“Hurts,” Kira grit out as another wave of burning pain overtook her.

“I know little one. I know.”

“Fucking Spoonheads. I’ll kill them.”

“We’ll help you,” Lupaza assured her, wrapping her torso in bandages at last.

The whip had cut deep, almost to the bone, and the wounds would scar, even with the attention of a dermal regenerator.

But the wounds would heal, and Kira would wear her stripes with pride.

**Breaking the Rules**

Her very first act of rebellion was throwing rocks at the camp guards. The trick was to climb on top of the buildings and wait until it started to get dark. Of course then it was harder to hit the Cardassians, but it gave you enough cover to be back home in bed before they found you.

Kira only got caught the once, and then only to protect her brother, Reon. He was moving too slow, so she got herself caught on purpose. She received one hell of a beating for that, but she bore the scars proudly for years.

**Sport**

There was precious little to do in the refugee camp where Kira had grown up. If you were too small to work in the mines there was nothing for you to do. That was why she and her brothers set up their rudimentary springball court. The scoring area was drawn onto a wall with chalk, but it served its purpose well enough. When Nerys tired of playing with Reon and Pohl, she went to find other children to play with and ended up organising an impromptu tournament. The Cardassians stopped them of course, but they just moved their court elsewhere.

**Keeping a Secret**

The girl was crying. She'd been unfocused for weeks, since half the cell had been taken captive. Now she'd gotten people killed and she wasn't taking it well. It was clear she was in pain, and Kira wanted to help. She went over.

For a while she just sat next to the girl, offering a comforting presence. At last she turned to Kira, ready to talk.

"Can you keep a secret?"

Kira nodded.

"I'm pregnant," said the girl. "By a Cardassian."

_Almost certainly rape_, Kira thought.

"Well you wouldn’t be the first to birth a half-breed. How can I help?"

**No Way Out**

The mission was supposed to be a simple hit and run on a Cardassian base, but it’s turning out to be anything but simple. Now they’re running for their lives, trying to get back to familiar territory before the Spoonheads find them.

They charge round a corner and Kira crashes into Furel.

“Dead end,” he says. “No way out but back.”

“We’ll have to shoot our way out,” warns Lupaza.

“All the better,” says Kira hotly. “We came to kill Cardassians.”

The sounds of pursuit get closer.

“Ready?” asks Furel. The other two nod. “Go!”

All three charge, firing wildly.

**Magic**

Kira smiled to see Lorit doing slight of hand tricks for the children. They were emaciated and weak, but at least they were laughing. The cell had liberated them from a labour camp and were still in the process of finding homes for them all. Some of the older kids wanted to stay with the cell and fight for the resistance; Edon had given his blessing provided they could make themselves useful.

It had been nice having the children around, and Kira knew she'd miss them. The caves had felt empty of late; too many comrades lost to the fight.

**Multitasking**

One of the reasons Nerys made such an effective resistance fighter was that she was a good little multitasker. She could keep track of half a dozen things at once; the whereabouts of her comrades and locations of any Cardassian patrols, wind direction, noise levels, mission objectives and the charge on her phaser. Keeping track of all these things was crucial. It meant that you react quicker to any threats and fast reaction times kept you alive.

Kira was good at multitasking in other situations as well. Like winding Furel up while she was chopping vegetables or cleaning a phaser.

**Horror**

Kira sits numbly, unable to think clearly. She's just back from a mission and should be getting debriefed by Shakaar but its obvious it went wrong and no one goes near her.

It should have been a routine scouting mission with raid with Nilar, one of the younger members of the cell. But they got into a firefight with some Cardassian scouts and Nilar's phaser overloaded...

Kira is covered from head to toe in a fine mist of blood and gore, all that's left of her friend.

This is life in the resistance, and she'll be fine, eventually. Nilar won't.

**Traps**

The Bajoran wilderness could be perilous without an experienced guide. If you braved the outback without knowing exactly what you were doing it could prove fatal.

The woods were filled with traps set for the Cardassians by the resistance. Improvised explosives, trip wires and nooses designed to discourage them from looking for the cells. More than one patrol had come back in pieces thanks to these devices.

Of course the Spoonheads had mined large swathes of land themselves, trying to catch the resistance. Too many innocent civilians had lost life and limb to the mines. Always the innocent get hurt.

**Playing the Melody**

Life in the resistance was hard, grim and frequently bloody; it was the nature of the work they were doing. But it wasn't all doom and gloom. There was a sense of camaraderie with your cellmates. And then there were the songs.

There was always someone singing in the camps. Ancient songs that were a part of a culture the Cardassians were trying to destroy. There were newer songs too, celebrating notable victories for the resistance.

Furel was always singing as he cleaned weapons or chopped vegetables. And some nights they would all gather round the fire and sing together.

**Hero**

They were a long way from camp and had been trudging through the hills for days. Their supplies were rapidly running out and Kira thought her feet might have started bleeding.

Over the next rise was a village that was a gift from the prophets. The inhabitants were wary of the rebels, eyeing them suspiciously.

One little girl ran up to Kira and started tugging on her pants.

"Are you resistance?" she asked shyly.

"I am, yes," Kira replied.

The girl broke out into a broad grin. "You're my heroes!" she said.

They were welcomed with open arms after that.

**67%**

"How's the charge on your phaser?" asked Lupaza quietly.

"It's at 67%," replied Kira. "More than enough to take down these Spoonies."

They were crouched on a ridge line, looking down the valley at a Cardassian patrol. They'd already engaged one squad today, and this one was unexpected. Thankfully they Cardies hadn't picked up their life signs yet.

"You sure want to?" asked Lupaza. "We're a bit outnumbered."

"We have the high ground, and the element of surprise.. Besides, I feel a little reckless today."

"You always feel reckless,"

Kira ignored her, already barrelling down the ridge whooping. Lupaza followed.

**I Can't**

They were running through the woods trying to escape. The raid had been successful but the Spoonies were faster than anticipated. So now they were running full pelt trying to get away.

Kira leaped over a log, but the ground on the other side was uneven. She landed badly and her leg gave way. Kira felt something break as she went down.

Shakaar gripped her arm tightly.

"Get up," he hissed.

"I can't," Kira replied. "My leg is broken."

"You stay here you're dead."

He was right.

She hauled herself upright and kept on running.

It turned out she could.

**Are You Challenging Me?**

"You're being a fool, Edon!"

"Come on Kira, don't be unreasonable."

"It won't work."

"The plan is sound. And besides, I'm the leader of this cell. I make the final call."

"Well maybe you shouldn't be."

"Do think you could do a better job?"

"Yes!"

"Nerys, are you challenging me for the leadership of the cell?"

"No I'm not."

"Good, because you'd be lousy at it."

"I'd be better than you."

"Really?"

"No I wouldn't. But you are a prat and the plan won't work."

"It will."

"It won't, but don't worry, I'll rescue your sorry ass. Thank me later."

**Mirror**

The river was running fast and clear today, and Nerys could see her face reflected in the water. She wasn't overfond of her reflection generally, and today was no different. The face staring back at her was tired and dirty and her hair was a greasy, tangled mess. Which was how she usually looked. It was a side effect of living in a cave without being able to wash regularly. Of spending your life fighting and bleeding and sweating. Her reflection didn't look anything like the young woman she knew she was. She looked old.

That's why she hated mirrors.

**Test**

"What the _kosst_ is that?" asked Edon, gesturing at what was presumably a large gun.

A _very_ large gun.

"Its my new toy," Nerys said proudly. "I liberated it from that convey we downed earlier. Do you like?"

"Damned thing looks like it could take out half a province. You sure you can manage to fire it without blowing your arm off?"

In response she aimed at the cave wall above his head and fired. The noise rattled her eardrums and large chunks fell off the ceiling, narrowly missing Edon's head.

"I am now," she said, smirking.

Edon just glared.

**Drink**

All of the resistance cells in Dahkur brew their own hooch. It’s useful for sterilising wounds, but mostly it just makes life a bit more bearable. It’s low grade stuff, harsh on the throat, but it gets you drunk enough if you close your eyes. A little drop of something helps on the days when you’ve seen your best friend blown up. There are no breweries left on Bajor, so the cells swap recipes and make it themselves.

Kira was thirteen the first time she drank hooch, and as long as she lived she’d never forget the taste of it.

**Starvation**

It’s one of the coldest winters in living memory, and the Shakaar are holed up in their cave, just trying to survive. There’s not enough food to go round and they ran out of firewood weeks ago. The power cells on all their phasers are running low so they can’t even heat rocks. All they can do is huddle together and hope they don’t freeze to death before they starve.

An empty belly would be easier to deal with if it weren’t so cold, Kira thinks. But she’s cold and hungry and has to deal with it, so she does.

**Words**

Shakaar wasn't very good at speeches.

He was the leader of a resistance cell, a hero; by all rights he should have been able to inspire the troops with a rousing speech. The reality was that Shakaar was a chronic mumbler. He was a brilliant tactician and a charismatic leader, but he was rubbish at public speaking.

This was well known within the Shakaar cell by the time Kira joined, and she was taught to lip read fairly early on. It proved an invaluable skill for getting through a mission briefing when you couldn't hear a word Shakaar was saying.

**Pen and Paper**

Of utmost importance to the resistance cells is the ability to communicate without the Cardassians listening in. They've managed to keep consistently keep a few frequencies open, but they never stay open long. Sometimes, if you really wanted to get a message through to another cell without the Spoonheads intercepting it, you had to do it the old fashioned way; send a person with the message written with pen and paper to a specific drop off point. That was so no cell could be compromised if the messenger was captured. The Shakaar liked to send new recruits on messenger duty.

**Heal**

The Cardassian’s phaser blast caught her in the ribs. She was lucky really, a few inches to the left and it would have killed her on that setting. Lupaza cleaned it for her, and all through it she grit her teeth and refused to cry out.

It takes its sweet time about healing; they don’t have the supplies out in the hills to speed up the process, and Kira resents being sidelined in the meantime. She knows she’ll only slow them down if she goes on a raid, but it doesn’t stop her chomping at the bit while she heals.

**Spiral**

The fighter blows out her starboard engine and she knows she's done for. Kira's a good pilot, but even she can't land a fifty year old impulse raider on only one engine, and certainly not from this height.

Desperately she wrestles with the controls but to no avail; she goes into a spin, gravity pulling her inexorably toward the planet. The speed of the descent makes her nauseous but there's nothing she can do to stop her downward spiral.

She braces herself for impact and hopes they can scrape enough of her out of the cockpit for a decent burial.

**Seeing Red**

They’re in the middle of a fire fight when one of her comrades goes down, never to get up. Later there will be tears and grief, but now there is only an all encompassing rage. Kira lifts her phaser rifle higher and screams her throat raw as she charges down the Spoonheads. When her phaser jams, she simply starts using it as a club.

Shakaar has to pull her off the bodies, kicking and screaming and covered in blood. She’s like a wildfire when she’s like this, burning with unstoppable rage. Sometimes the anger is all that keeps her alive.

**Food**

Keeping a resistance cell fed was almost a full time job. Mostly they ate what they could hunt or scavenge, though sometimes they were given gifts of food by grateful villagers and other supporters. Occasionally, if they were lucky, they’d be able to pull some supplies off a Cardassian transport they’d intercepted.

There was almost never enough to go around. They fared better than those Bajorans on rations in labour camps, but their belts were still tight. Necessity was the mother of invention and they ate just about whatever they could get hold of.

No one liked palukoo surprise night.

**Pain**

Pain is something with which Kira is intimately acquainted. She has known the pangs of an empty stomach and the misery of a badly healed wound; she has known the agony of a harsh beating and the torment of sexual assault. Pain has many insidious forms and Kira is familiar with almost all of them.

She knows how to endure, but she has also learned to inflict pain as well. She has had to in order to beat the Cardassians at their own game. She doesn’t like any of this, but it is what the Occupation has made of her.

**Triangle**

The first thing you needed to know about surviving in the Bajoran wilderness was how to build a shelter. A shelter could keep you safe from animals and elements alike, and can mean the difference between life and death.

The first thing you needed to know about building a shelter is that a triangle is the strongest shape you can use. If you build your shelter out of triangles, it has the best possible chance of surviving the night, which means so do you.

It was one of the first things Kira learned, and it's saved her life countless times.

**Drowning**

Kira kicked out hard, but there was nothing to connect with. Her arms flailed wildly, but still she was falling, sinking.

Nothing to stop her drowning.

She fought to keep her eyes open despite the sting. Her chest felt like there was a weight on it and her lungs burned from lack of oxygen.

Her vision started to fade and she knew this was the end.

Suddenly there was a hand pulling out of the water.

Lupaza dragged Nerys to the shore by the scruff of her neck. Kira gasped, desperate for air.

"Don't you scare me like that again!"

**Give Up**

Some days it is all too tempting to give up. To simply lie down and accept the abuses the Cardassians throw at you. It happens at the lowest ebb. When you're cold and hungry and tired or wading through mud and excrement.

Some days its a challenge to keep going. To remember that the Cardassians _want_ you to give up. That the future of your entire planet is at stake.

Its on days like that that your comrades in arms are invaluable. They pick you up and force you to carry on and you will do the same for them.

**Last Hope**

"We have to take down those transmitters. If we can't move around freely then its all over."

Shakaar was pacing up and down the camp, understandably upset with the news.

"Someone has to go out there and take the whole system offline," Furel said.

"How? If they can track every Bajoran on the planet?" That was Lupaza, the voice of reason.

"They'll have to be small. And quick," said Shakaar.

"I'll do it," said Kira. "I'm small I'm fast and I'm the best with explosives."

Shakaar looked unhappy.

"If this is our last hope..." said Kira.

Shakaar sighed loudly. "Okay."

**Advertisement**

The first thing they noticed when they entered the town was that the Spoonheads had erected a massive view screen in the square. They'd had them up in the larger towns for years, but apparently they'd gotten them out in the sticks now as well. Currently on the screen was the smug face of the Prefect himself, giving some rousing rhetoric about the glory of the Union. It was thinly veiled pro-occupation propaganda. Then the broadcast switched to a plea for information about resistance members, in the interests of everyone's safety, of course. Kira put her fist through the screen.

**In the Storm**

The storms had been battering Dahkur for weeks. Howling winds and torrential rain had driven the resistance even further underground than usual. There was little for them to do with the roads so dangerous and all other routes impassable. So they were holed up in their caves with little to do.

Not that they were completely idle. Furel was making the most of the rain to collect drinkable water; they now had enough to last them a long time. Kira kept herself busy maintaining the phasers and sharpening the knives. And if anyone was damp and uncomfortable, they didn't complain.

**Solitude**

Sometimes, when she needed to be alone for a while, Kira would climb to the top of the Dakhur hills and sit.

She'd often go up there for prayer or meditation, sometimes to watch the sun rise or set. Other times she went up there to vent her anger and grief where no one could see.

On occasion she'd go to there just to get away. She loved her cell really, but sometimes living in each others' shadows grated her patience and she'd crave being in her own.

This is where she'd come, to think, to breathe and just be.

**Through the Fire**

Kira stood in the Dahkur hills and raised her arms in prayer to the Prophets.

They had finally done it. The Cardassians had been driven from Bajor after almost sixty years of Occupation. There was still blood and grime on her face from the final battle but it couldn't stop the joyous grinning.

She'd hoped and prayed for this day, but Kira never really thought she'd live to see it. Now Bajor was free. They'd come through their trial by fire and had survived. Now came the work of rebuilding a planet and a culture.

They were free at last.


End file.
